Adapted from a 1999 short story by Goosebumps’ RL Stine, this kid-proofed piece of midwestern folk horror borrows merrily from The Wicker Man, Stephen King and Tim Burton. Rattling those influences around in its horn of plenty, it rigs up a taut enough plotline about a New York family arriving in the suspiciously fecund farming outpost of Redhaven. But, even given the horror-lite nature of the enterprise, it doesn’t stake out sufficient fresh territory of its own – until it’s too late.
Snotty skate rat Sam (Bean Reid) moves to Redhaven with his mum, Cassie, (Kendra Anderson) and older brother Finn (Seth Isaac Johnson) where, hitting the local harvest festival, they learn that ornery Farmer Palmer (Kevin McNulty) is the one responsible for miraculously wringing out fresh bounty from the town’s once-blighted fields. Vexed at finding himself in the sticks, Sam decides to steal Palmer’s prize pumpkin – but when Finn returns it, he is magically trapped inside. All the adults seem to forget Finn ever existed, leaving Sam until midnight on Halloween to break the curse.
